German World Cup winner Andre Schurrle has been made available for loan by Borussia Dortmund with the Bundesliga club accepting they will have to continue paying half his £150,000-a-week wages.
Newcastle and Stoke are among the clubs considering a move for the 27-year-old who won a Premier League title at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho and set up the winning goal for Mario Goetze in the last World Cup final.
However, he has not featured regularly for Dortmund and the club want to make a saving on some of his salary even though they would ideally prefer to send him out on an 18-month loan.